Greeks, Norse, Romans, oh my!
by thefaultin0urfandom
Summary: Annabeth and Magnus have that conversation about whose story is better. Interruptions and crazy boyfriends make the whole day more exciting... Spoilers for BoO and obviously Magnus Chase. Percabeth


**Very overdone, but oh well! Enjoy! Originally posted on AO3**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Rick Riordan's work**

 _'How much you want to bet?' I said._

' _Bring it on, cousin.'_

 _"Lunch?' I suggested. 'I know a great falafel place.'_

' _You've got a bet,' she said. 'Let's hear what you've been up to.'_

' _Oh, no,' I said. 'Your story is so amazing? You go first.'_

Annabeth smiled. "Let's go to this falafel place you're so fond of, and I'll start there. You'd want to be sitting down for my story, I think."

I scoffed. "Don't be so sure of that, Annabeth."

As we travelled to the falafel place, I suddenly felt indecisive. What if Annabeth didn't believe me? What if her story was nothing like mine? She might drag me to Social Services and put me in a straight-jacket. But Frey _had_ said that I would need her. I shook my head to clear it of all nonsense and stared at my cousin walking confidently down the streets of Boston. She looked wary of everything around her, and seemed to jump at the littlest things. I strained to remember a memory from a long time ago. Annabeth had told me that she had ADHD. That explained the restlessness. But was she an Einherji like me? Was she even a demigod? Maybe she was a mortal with connections in the godly world. But Annabeth had a strange aura around her, and her eyes held a stormy personality of their own.

"Magnus?" I jumped and saw that Annabeth had stopped. "Is this the falafel place?" Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"Uh, yes," I stammered. My cousin seemed to stifle a snort and I glared at her. I led Annabeth to a table and we both sat down.

I looked at Annabeth expectantly. She seemed worried, her grey eyes narrowing at me. Suddenly, her joking persona was gone. This was an Annabeth I wasn't used to. She was _scary_. "Can I trust you?" she said. I frowned, then nodded. Her hand hovered to the waistband of her jeans. It seemed an almost unconscious gesture, as if she'd done it a thousand times before.

I coughed, and struggled to get my voice out. "Yeah," I squeaked. "You can trust me." Annabeth seemed a lot scarier than some of the monsters I had recently faced.

As soon as I said those words, Annabeth relaxed. Her hands came to rest on the table, and her eyes lightened. "Try not to interrupt; there's a lot to explain," she said.

"Somehow I think I've heard most of it before," I said, my voice now back to normal.

Annabeth exhaled through her nose and regarded me curiously. "Yes, I think that too," she muttered to herself. I felt a shiver go down my back.

Annabeth was once again back to her normal self. "When I was seven, shortly after we last saw each other, I ran away from home."

"Just like you said you would," I mused. Annabeth raised her eyebrows. I cleared my throat, embarrassed. "Continue."

"Thanks," Annabeth said with a wry smile. "Anyway, these two people, in their teens, found me and took me in. Their names were Thalia and... Luke." Her voice broke on that last word but I didn't dare to comment. "They had run away from home as well, and they were travelling to a safe place. It was with them that I discovered that my mom was a goddess." Annabeth paused, waiting for my reaction. When there was none, she sighed. "You know already. That makes it about ten times easier."

"Yeah," I said, relieved. "You won't think I'm crazy now."  
Annabeth nodded, and continued her story. "Anyway, we got to the safe place for demigods, Camp Half-Blood-"

I couldn't help but interrupt. "There's a camp for demigods?" I asked, shocked. "How did I not know this?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Camp is in New York," she said. "Maybe it's not heard of in Boston. I don't know." There was a glint of something in her eyes, however, that made me think that she did know something. Or at least _suspected_ something.

I gasped mockingly. "The great Annabeth Chase, not knowing something? The horror!" Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Who is your mom, anyway?" I asked. "Presumably you know."

"Yeah, I know," she said. She eyed me curiously. "My mom's Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy."

I gaped. I had heard about Athena in school, ages ago, but... "Athena? As in... the Greek goddess?"  
Annabeth nodded. "I was right then, you're not Greek."

I was still flabbergasted. "There are other gods?"

Annabeth chucked quietly, but she still looked puzzled. "You're not Roman, even they know that there's a camp, and you're probably not Egyptian, because you're a demigod..." She muttered this half to herself.

"There are Roman and Egyptian gods too?" I closed my eyes, and tried not to explode. "Gods."

"So who is your godly parent?" Annabeth asked.

I shook my head. "You're not shocked? Of course you're not shocked. Why would you be shocked?"  
Annabeth laughed. "I've known for a long time that other gods exist. Plus, I'm smart. That friend of yours at the funeral home? Obviously wasn't human. And he didn't look like anything else I've seen either. You haven't answered my question."

"Um, right. Uh, my dad's Frey, the Norse god of summer, growth, fertility, balance, et cetera, et cetera."

"Norse," Annabeth whispered. "So there are other realms? Like Asgard and Jotunheim? Helheim and Alfheim?"

I nodded. "Been to some of them." It was nice to see Annabeth shocked for once. "How do you know about all this anyway?"

"I told you, my mom's Athena," Annabeth said, not really paying attention. She was looking at the sky, seemingly thinking about the different worlds. "I have a thirst for knowledge."

"Yeah, no kidding," I said. "You promised to tell me your stories, anyway."

Annabeth blinked, and shook herself back to the present. "You'd better order some food. We'll be here a long time, little cousin."

I rolled my eyes but ordered anyway. "I hope you have enough money," I said teasingly.

"Do you?" Annabeth shot back. "Right. It all really started when a boy named Percy arrived at camp..."

Annabeth and I had finished all of our food by the time her story had ended. And believe me, there was _a lot_ of food. Hey, I'm an Einherji. We often get hungry. Besides, Annabeth had a big appetite too.

I felt that she hadn't told me anything, (I mean, I wouldn't want to elaborate about a trip to hell or the battles where many lives had been lost. And there were _two_ great wars that she had participated in. I cut her some slack.) Despite me interrupting _many_ times, Annabeth was able to finish her story within an hour.

I was honestly astounded. By the time she was _sixteen years old,_ Annabeth had met lots of gods and Titans, seen many deaths, battled countless monsters, been to the freaking _underworld_ (!) three times (!) held up the sky, and a whole lot of other things that I couldn't comprehend. And she just brushed that off with a wave of her hand, saying that her boyfriend had done way more death defying things than her. And after she was sixteen... Gods. She had even spent her own birthday in Tartarus, the party home for monsters.

I knew that I had lost the bet.

Annabeth had teared up towards the end, but after wiping away her tears and saying, "I'm _fine_ , Magnus, lay off!" she was ready to hear my story.

"Well, first off, I just want to say something about when you first saw me in that funeral home." Annabeth looked confused, but nodded all the same.

"That was my body in the coffin."

"What?" Annabeth all but yelled. "Magnus, you're right here."

I smiled. "I'm dead, Annabeth." Annabeth was nonplussed. "See, I was fighting his fire giant, Surt, on the bridge where I died, and to cut a long story short, he threw a burning piece of asphalt at me and I stabbed him with a sword and we both fell off the bridge." I winced at the memory of that excruciating pain, and the feeling of hopelessness; the feeling that I was going to die.

"Magnus..."

"Right." I mumbled. "There was this Valkyrie, Sam, who was waiting to... well... pick me up after my death, and she took me to Valhalla."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You really are dead! You're one of those soldiers waiting for Ragnarok."  
"We're the Einherjar," I said.

"That doesn't explain how you're here now. The dead are supposed to stay dead."

"I am dead!" I quickly looked around and lowered my voice as I got some funny looks. "See, Valhalla is in Asgard, and Asgard has a door to Midgard, and all the other realms. So that's how I'm here today."

"Gods, Nico is going to scream when I tell him," Annabeth muttered.

I laughed. I proceeded to tell her about Blitzen, the dwarf; Hearthstone, the deaf elf; Samirah, the Valkyrie daughter of Loki; and our adventures together though the realms.

"You fished for the World Serpent?" Annabeth had exclaimed. "How idiotic are you?"

I sighed. Annabeth had kept on commenting on my stupidity ("You swore on your troth? That's like swearing on the Styx!" And other helpful stuff like that.)

As I concluded with the half troll X turning into Odin (who really liked PowerPoint presentations)

Annabeth chuckled. "He and Zeus would love each other." The sky rumbled, which was odd, because it was a clear day. Annabeth didn't even flinch, like it happened on a daily basis.

Before any of us could say another word, a buzzing noise came from Annabeth's pocket. She pulled out an old age flip phone and held it to her ear.

"Hey Percy," she said. Oh, it was her crazy boyfriend. "I told you, I'm with my cousin, Magnus." Pause. "Yes, the one who came back from the dead." Pause. Annabeth sighed. "I don't care if you're hungry, get food yourself!" A long pause. "I'm at a falafel place." Pause. "Ye-es..." Pause. "Gods, Percy. Okay." Annabeth rolled her eyes and hung up the phone.

"So that was Percy," I said awkwardly.

Annabeth grinned. "He's a bit childish. He's going to come here in five minutes."

I raised an eyebrow. "That fast?"

Annabeth blushed. "He's... sort of... staying with me in my hotel here."

"Oh. _OH_." My cheeks grew red.

"No, not like that, you butt," Annabeth said.

"Right." I cleared my throat. I rushed to change the subject. "So how did you know to tell me about your secret life? Not that I'm saying that it was a bad idea, but you must've been apprehensive."

"I _was_ apprehensive. I probably wouldn't have even agreed to meet with you... Actually I would have. I wanted to know how you had faked your death." I snorted. "But a few days ago, my mom came to me in a dream. She said that I would need to speak to you. And that you could help me. So... I came."

"No way," I said. "My dad visited me in a dream too. And he said basically the same thing."

Annabeth laughed humourlessly. "Trust them to be working together while we demigods are clueless." The sky once again rumbled.

I opened my mouth to comment on that when I was interrupted by a tall boy appearing at our table. "Annabeth!" he said. "Do you know how many falafel places there are in Boston?"

Annabeth snickered. "Um. Maybe."

"Gods, Wise Girl. I had to search for ages," the boy said exasperatedly, slipping into the seat next to Annabeth. He had windswept black hair and deep green eyes that changed in the light. They seemed to hold the same expression in their depths as Annabeth: broken, with a carefully constructed shield placed around them. "I take it you're Magnus?" he said.

"Yeah, uh, I'm Magnus," I said. "And you're Percy?"

Percy nodded. He stared at me until I became uncomfortable and had to look away.

"I heard that you were dead," Percy said, sounding amused. Annabeth nudged him in the side but Percy continued anyway. "I take it that you're not?"

"Um, actually..." I trailed off. Annabeth nodded, and I drew myself up. "I really am dead."

"What?" Percy's hand drifted to his pocket. I remember Annabeth telling me that he had a sword disguised as a pen (seriously, that's cool).

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Magnus, do you want to tell him or shall I?"

"Uh, you can," I said. I had a feeling that Percy would interrupt a lot.

Annabeth gave a brief description of everything that had happened, with a few comments from me, and by the end, Percy had his eyes narrowed. "I swear, if there turns out to me some Mayan gods or something, I'm going to scream," he said.

I laughed, but Annabeth looked pensive. "That _could_ be a possibility..." Percy glared.

I noticed that the sun had lowered considerably; I needed to get back to Valhalla. The hotel manager had given me the afternoon off but I still wanted dinner. I paid for the food, and we walked out of the shop.

"I'm going back to Valhalla now," I told Annabeth. "Do you want to know how I travel between realms?"

She nodded, excitement sparkling in her eyes. Percy rolled his eyes.  
I changed Jack back into sword form. Percy jumped back when he heard the sword speak.

"Wow, I've been cooped up in there for ages!" Jack said.

"You have a talking sword," Percy said quietly.

"Hi! I'm Jack." Jack did a little twirl in mid-air.

"You have a talking sword... named _Jack_ ," Percy said. I grinned.

I grabbed Jack out of the air and swiped the sword down to create a gap. "Bye!" I waved, and jumped through the portal.

The last thing I heard was: " _I_ want a talking sword, Annabeth."

 **Originally posted as two chapters, but I wasn't bothered, sorry X(**

 **Review? Thanks.**


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